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Published: June 19th 2018
After my last blog we have been busy moving. On our last night in Zaostrog we went for an evening stroll. We wanted to visit the monastery next door where our vegetables were coming from. We started walking about and went in the church. It had lovely paintings around the walls and beautiful stained glass windows. We looked round the courtyard and then entered a room with huge paintings on the wall. We were just starting to get a good look when I was asked to leave as I was wearing shorts! Should have known better really. Still we could look around the garden and saw where the beans were growing and lots of tomato plants and potatoes. Coming out onto the street we realised the locals were in the grip of World Cup Fever. Croatia were playing Nigeria and all three bars were showing the match. We walked past and watched the sunset before returning back. The next morning we found that Croatia had won 2-0 much to our vegetable sellers delight.
We were sad to leave Zaostrog but were ready for the next stage of our trip. We had decided that we would retrace our steps on the
coastal road and find a site for the night above where we had stayed previously. We passed Omis and then Pakostane. The trouble with travelling north on this road is that you have the sea on your left with lots of stopping places but on the right you are up against a mountain so stopping places are few and far between. We searched for a coffee stop but in the end settled for a lunch stop. Simon likes to stop now and then and let faster vehicles pass us but that was difficult. He doesn't like stopping in bus stops as that is illegal. But he pulled into one to let a coach past only to find it pulled in and just stopped as it was the bus! We kept seeing signs warning of wild boar on the road but were disappointed in not seeing any.
We eventually arrived in Zadar and decided to find somewhere for the night which we found in Nin, the start of the long narrow peninsular after Zadar.It was a lovely quiet site with a beautiful swimming pool and friendly owner. We set up, had a cup of tea and then went for a
swim until our fingers were all wrinkly. They had a nest of hedgehogs under a bush. Six baby hedgehogs had been born though I only saw four at one time. They were so tiny and sweet, about three inches long and smaller than the saucer of milk put out for them. Simon did not like this as milk is bad for hedgehogs but they didn't seem interested anyway. They started up their pizza oven, the site bar not the hedgehogs,so we had one for supper delicious. To work it off we walked to the beach. We saw people in the water about 40 metres out but still only up to their ankles. A promenade had been put up and you could swim from that or rocks but not what I would call a beach. The sun was setting and we watched as it dropped into the sea, beautiful.
The next morning we went into the town for shopping and fuel. We stocked up on necessities. We thought we had the weighing of fruit and vegetables sussed as we found you weigh your goods, put in a code and a ticket is printed for the price at the till. Here
we could not find a code and found you just bagged it up and it was weighed at the till. Next we wanted bread. We saw what we wanted on Perspex shelves but you couldn't reach them. so we hung about to see what we should do. It turned out you had to get a large metal implement and knock your loaf off the shelf and you then picked it up from a shelf lower down. This worked well but Simon had problems with getting some Danish pastries, they ended upside down. We probably shouldn't have been buying them anyway!
Next we went to the petrol station. Here there were long queues. Everyone seemed to be filling up cans presumably for their boats. Eventually we got away. When we got back to the site I thought I saw a cicada on next doors van. I took a picture and then found we had one on the roof of our van caught up between the roof vent and the mosquito net. Simon rescued this one. When trying to identify another insect I found these were actually crickets so I still haven't seen a cicada.
Eventually we got away and
headed further up the coast. We left Zadar on the motorway but it was so windy the caravan was being blown around and it was quite frightening. They had slow speed limits up for all traffic but no one was taking any notice. It was a relief to come off and join the usual coastal road. This crossed the water and followed the islands all the way along.They looked very rocky and barren with little sign of life. Once again we had the mountains on our right and beautiful views round every turn. Progress is slow on these roads though. I wanted to stay on the island of Krk but we had been warned that the sites were very full and we may not get in. So to cut the journey down we stopped at Selce just below Rijecka but opposite Krk. This tuned out to be quite a good site though probably not so good in high season. We could camp where ever we liked as long as it wasn't in the front line, This was reserved for full paying campers, we had ACSI discount. Nevertheless we found a site with seaviews and set up. We were issued with
wristbands which got us through locked gates onto their private beach. We went down to try it out. It was once again a man made lido. Lots of little inlets made up. We chose to go in what looked like a swimming pool, all one depth but you could swim out to open sea.We swam out and I tried to get on some steps to the rocks. Every time I got on the steps I was knocked off by a wave. So we decided to swim to some steps further off with a rail. We got there and poor old crocs managed to get out. When we walked back to our towels we realised we must have swum quite away.
We went back to the van and cooked our meal. Then we watched England play their first cup match against Tunisia. We won! Brilliant and we're not usually football fans.
This morning we headed for Italy. We left Croatia and drove past the bridge over to Krk. We intended to drive on the motorway to get passed Rijecka and then follow the E65 through Slovenia and into Italy. We set the sat nav. We don't know if we
small crab
Lots of these were darting about in the waterwent wrong or sat nav had a funny moment. One minute we were heading for the motorway, the next we were going through narrow lanes through villages, up mountains and suddenly popped out again in the middle of Rijeka. Simon coped very well and I was glad not to have been driving but we shouldn't have been on those roads. We finally made it to the motorway and left Croatia. We have now left the limestone mountains behind. We climbed up in Slovenia and then came down the other side into Italy. We bypassed Trieste and are now in Sistiana on the way to Venice. We have another nice campsite right up the hill above the sea.
We thought we must go down to the sea. We walked down and took a short cut down some very steep steps. This then became a bit of an assault course where we had to climb over a tree trunk, get down a slope hanging onto a rope. We finally made it to the bottom vowing not to climb back up the same way. At the bottom is a harbour and further round the usual man made beaches. We have been spoilt
in Dorset. Concrete and rocks does not make a beach. People were crowded up on a small bit of shingle. We had a short swim but didn't hang about for long. We managed to catch the land train back up to the site, what a relief.
I then went for a swim in the pool while Simon decided to clean the car and caravan. I was just swimming around when I heard someone blowing a whistle. I realised it was at me. Aparently you're not allowed in the pool without a cap! So I had to leave. Shame as it is a lovely pool. Simon has made a good job of the cleaning so I got the meal ready tonight, eaten outside in sight of the sea. I shall miss this when we come home. Even washing up outside has it's moments. Simon says he will fit me up with a bowl on his black and decker stand but somehow it won't be the same!
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rob kingman
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Your Tour
Realy enjoying your blog,what an adventure.Spoke to James alls well